Democracy Now! Wednesday, September 16, 2026

0:00From New York, this is Democracy Now. We discovered that Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. This oligarch rented out a private island in the Bahamas for it for multiple nights. It was really an ultra-electric affair. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses all in secret. A bombshell report by ProPublica about Russian oligarch bankrolling Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding has sparked calls for federal investigations. We'll speak to the reporter, Joshua Kaplan. In the elimination project, the Israeli human rights group at Selam, has accused Israel of dramatically escalating its assault on all aspects of Palestinian life in the occupied

1:04West Bank. These are all parts of the system with one aim to ensure Jewish supremacy and eliminate the Palestinian collective. Then, to Iran. This Amnesty International reiterates its call for a ceasefire. In the U.S. Iran War, Amnesty has accused Iranian authorities of committing crimes against humanity during their bloody suppression of the 2022 woman life freedom uprising. The evidence leaves no doubt the Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity. In Iran, those responsible remain in power, while survivors and families seeking justice are persecuted. The Iran protests began after 22-year-old Masa Amini died in the custody of Iran's morality police four years ago today. All that and more coming up.

2:06Welcome to democracynowdemocracynow.org the war in peace report, I'm Amy Goodman. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to end the war in Iran for a third time, with seven Republicans backing the resolution. This comes as the nonpartisan congressional budget office estimates the U.S. Israeli war in Iran has cost the Pentagon $38.1 billion from the outbreak of the war in February through August 1st. That's an average of $246 million per day over five months. The CBO reports the war could cost another two to three billion dollars for each additional month of fighting. The CBO also warned the war has used up as much as two thirds of the U.S. missile defense interceptors since June 2025. It would take at least five years to replace these interceptors. The CBO also expects the war to add half a percentage point to annual inflation by the

3:10first quarter of next year. Meanwhile a separate report by the Pentagon's inspector general details how Iranian strikes have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at U.S. military bases across the Middle East causing about $184 million worth of damage. New photos obtained by CBS News reveal heavy damage of buildings and vehicles at multiple U.S. positions across the Middle East from Iranian missile and drone strikes. The images were sent anonymously to CBS News by active service members. One deployed service member told CBS News, quote, this is major damage to our bases that hasn't been communicated to the American public. We're standing there with our eyes closed, getting punched in the face, unquote. Saudi Arabia says it destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered prohibited airspace. Houthi officials deny targeting Mecca.

4:11It comes as the Houthis claimed responsibility for using dozens of ballistic missiles and drones against a Saudi air base in the south of the country on Monday. Air-raid sirens were activated in six governors, including Jeddah on Tuesday. In addition to long-range missiles and drones, there's now growing evidence that the Houthis are using artificial intelligence to attack shipping traffic in the Red Sea. The Houthis declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia back in July and captured the port city of Mecca last week, as well as islands near Babamandab straight. The Houthis claim they're retaliating against Saudi strikes on Yemen. The UN warns of a humanitarian crisis with a hundred thousand Yemenis already displaced. This is Yemeni woman who is forced to flee her home. We fled from the war and took nothing with us. We didn't even bring the children's clothes. We have no flower and no clothes for the children.

5:13We came to add in and arrive today. There are three days of walking. We made it today. The children are hungry. We have no food and it's been three days. They are hungry. Republican Congress member Thomas Massey of Kentucky introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hague Seth Tuesday, accusing him of illegally starting and continuing the Iran War, defying Congress and causing needless civilian casualties. The House will have to act on Massey's proposal by tomorrow. This is Congress member Massey on the floor of the House. Wherefore Secretary of Defense Peter Hague Seth, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law. Peter Brian Hague Seth thus warns impeachment and trial, removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.

6:18The Trump administration acknowledged for the first time the U.S. Space Force has deployed weapons in orbit. China warned against an arms race in space with the foreign ministry spokesperson saying quote, we urge the U.S. side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space. The Kremlin spokesperson to meet your Peskov, urge quote, that space must be free of any weapon. The Trump administration approved a $2.8 billion package selling 2,000 pound bombs to Israel. The sale includes 40,000 bombs made up of 20,000 MK84s and 20,000 B.O.U. 117s. The sale is funded by foreign military financing, a program in which the U.S. gives Israel tax payer money that Israel then spends on U.S. made weapons. Human rights groups and governments around the world have condemned Israel for dropping the 2,000 pound bombs and densely populated civilian areas in Gaza.

7:24In Gaza, a building housing 100 people suddenly collapse this morning killing at least 20 people, including women and children. The building was reportedly unstable due to damage from Israeli strikes. The prisons more are trapped in the rubble as the death tolls expected to rise. This comes as Israeli air strikes killed at least five Palestinians, including two children and a Hamas armed commander on Tuesday, according to Palestinian health officials. This is the brother of a Palestinian man who was killed in an Israeli air strike. The killing, arrogance and brutality against children and innocent people is still ongoing. This enemy, which has no regard for humanity, international conscience, children or women, continues killing. We are here appealing to the entire world. We appeal to the United States, the sponsor, and we appeal to the mediaeers. We hold them responsible for us happening to the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, the United Nations sounding the alarm about possible war crimes committed

8:24by Israel as hundreds of bodies have been recovered from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. According to the UN, the remains of entire families, many of them children are being unearthed from sites. This is the head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Palestine. It is estimated that at least 8,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble across the Gaza Strip. Palestinian civil defense teams have recovered over 800 bodies since the announcement of a ceasefire in October 2025, despite severe shortages of equipment, fuel and personal. At this pace, completing the recovery of the remaining bodies will take at least 10 more years. Even longer, when accounting for the time needed to identify bodies, if ever possible. Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders and former Trump advisor and far-right strategist

9:27Steve Bannon shared the stage at a conference dub the pro-human assembly in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, denouncing tech oligarchs and calling for AI regulations. This is Senator Sanders. Despite living in a so-called democracy, the public has had virtually no input into the AI revolution that is transforming the world in which they live. Congress on the both Democratic and Republican control have been asleep at the wheel, and we now have a president whose ignorance regarding this issue is truly embarrassing. In related news and news, E. cleanup is underway after some 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from a storage tank at the Equinex Data Center in Sikakis and flowed into a creek near the

10:28Hackensack River. This comes as activists continue to warn of the catastrophic environmental impacts of unregulated AI data centers nationwide. Trump's Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to immediately close the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts citing dire financial shortages and the need for renovations. The decision came just hours after a federal judge again blocked the boards latest effort to inscribe President Trump's name into the building's marble edifice without approval from Congress. Just after the ruling, President Trump called into the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees meeting and yelled at Democratic's Congress member Joyce Beatty, who serves as a trustee. Beatty is an Ohio Democrat who spearheaded the campaign to block efforts to memorialize Trump at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts. Trump reportedly referred to Beatty as incompetent to

11:30which he responded, quote, you're holding up the whole country, unquote, an unnamed board member described Trump's phone call as, quote, effing crazy to CNN. Just a few days ago, the Trump aligned board had claimed the Kennedy Center was on the brink of bankruptcy and fiscal collapse. And last month, Justice Department lawyers suggested the Trump administration could demolish the Kennedy Center unless the government is allowed to follow through with its plans for the site. A review by Bloomberg of President Trump's financial disclosures finds he made nearly 28,700 stock trades in 17 months more than all of Congress combined. This comes despite President Trump's backing of a house bill that would ban Congress members their spouses and dependent children from trading individual stocks. The bill sponsored by Republican Congress member Anna Polina Luna would exempt the president. In a Senate hearing Tuesday, FBI Director Cash Patel suggested he might be

12:32willing to send federal agents to polling places during the midterm elections. He made the emission during a contentious exchange with Vermont's Democratic Senator Peter Welch. In Pennsylvania, health officials have reported a fourth measles death. All four deaths have occurred just in the last month. 2026 is now on record as the deadliest year for measles in the US since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. Pennsylvania had not had a measles related death in at least 35 years. The deaths include an 18-year-old teenager and a 40-year-old woman,

13:36both whom were unvaccinated, as well as a six-week-old baby and a newborn who died shortly after birth. And singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is facing growing backlash after removing Grammy-winning musician Macklemore from Sheeran's US tour. Sheeran caved into demands to drop Macklemore after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft organized a boycott among stadium owners over the rapper's advocacy for Palestine. Kraft reportedly told Sheeran the tour would be cancelled unless Macklemore was dropped. Hours after Sheeran said he would not publicly speak up over Israel's war on Gaza. Four of his supporting musical acts announced they're leaving the tour among them, Phineas, the brother of pop star Billy Eilish, who said on Instagram, quote, must not be silence when they speak up for the oppressed. I stand with Palestine and its people.

14:38The Irish folk band, Beoga, Sheeran's backing band and Irish musician Aaron Row dropped out as well. Row said in a social media post-quote as Irish people, we know all too well about genocide, force famine and violent occupation. I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder of children. Unquote. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, democracynow.org, the Warn Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. And I'm Anjali Kamath. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Congressional Democrats have opened an investigation after pro-publica revealed that a Russian oligarch, close to Vladimir Putin, bankrupt part of Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding in May. Pro-publica revealed Omar Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on wedding expenses,

15:41including the rental of a private island. Kremlev also attended the intimate wedding. Other attendees included Trump Jr.'s sister Ivanka, his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and his brother Eric Trump. The president did not attend. All together, the guest list numbered around 50. Omar Kremlev, who is seen in photos at the wedding, is the president of the International Boxing Association, just weeks before the wedding, Putin awarded him the order of friendship. Donald Trump Jr.'s and his newly wed wife, Bettina Anderson, confirmed pro-publica's findings, writing on social media, quote, our dear friend Omar, very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us. It's unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is aware they come from. Democratic Congress member Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said the bankrolling of the wedding raises, quote, serious national security and public corruption

16:43concerns, unquote. And this is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut speaking on the Senate floor. Never before, as a foreign enemy of the United States, paid for the family wedding of the president. Why? Because it is naked corruption in plain view. It is as close to treason as you get. Excepting lavish gifts, millions of dollars in gifts, perhaps, from the enemy of this nation. On Tuesday, Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is Trump's former personal lawyer, was asked if the Justice Department will probe the funding of the wedding. The president doesn't know who this person is. I think other members of the family don't know who this person is. The president's son has said that he's a very close friend and that he accepted a gift in the weekend of his wedding. When you say, am I investigating, am I investigating what? And when you say, this person is a friend of Putin, I don't even know if that's true or not.

17:48And in a statement, President Trump said, quote, I have no idea who Omar is never heard of him. He didn't pay for Don and Batina's wedding, which took place at a totally different location on a different day from the wedding. It was an after party given in their honor, not a big deal. I was not president. The party, Trump said. We're joined now by Joshua Kaplan, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for Propoblica. He co-authored the expoze Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding with secretly bank rolled by Russian oligarch close to Putin. Joshua, thanks for joining us. Why don't we start off by you just explaining who is Omar Kremlin love? So I think the most important thing to understand about Kremlin love is the level of his connection with the Russian government. Right before the wedding, he wasn't just making sure his suit still fits. He was reportedly traveling in China as part of Putin's delegation there. As you said, a month earlier, he got the latest in a series of state honors that he's received from Putin after Russian invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian government sanctioned

18:48Kremlin love personally. And that government connection is a through line throughout Kremlin's entire life story. He was an obscure figure with a criminal record in a different name. He changed his name and over the course of his, the government has given him assets and taken other actions that have turned him into a very wealthy magnet, a dominant figure in the sports betting world in Russia. Really, it's impossible to understand him and his story without talking about and thinking about his connection with Putin and Putin's inner circle. And Josh, how exactly did he meet Don Jr? I mean, this is a guy who used to be part of a right-wing biker gang in Russia. Yeah, I mean, it's an excellent question. It's not something we fully understand yet. I mean, the strangest thing about this is that Don Jr. met this guy only very recently. Kremlin love's office told us that they met a couple of years ago. Don Jr. said they met through a mutual

19:52friend of the hunting world and quickly hit it off because they both love boxing and the outdoors. But how things got to this point where Omar is not only attending this very intimate wedding, but also paying for it is very much a mystery. And President Trump trying to make a distinction between paying for the actual wedding. It was very small. It was like 50 people, right? Ten of them were part of this Russian party, 20% of the party. So there was a wedding and then the celebrations, the fireworks. Yeah, I mean, so I think it's a mistake to get bogged down in this distinction. Really what we're talking about is a is a reception. The, you know, quote unquote after party the president's referring to is where they had their first dance and eight wedding cake. The ceremony itself was just family. The oligarch did not attend that. The rest of the this lavish lavish wedding weekend was attended by Omar in this Russian entourage and paid for by

20:55Kremlin. And there were 10 people in the Russian entourage at a wedding of 50 people. That's about right. And I mean, Don Jr. as Welp is put at about 300 million dollars. Did he need anybody to pay for the wedding? What do we know about what why Omar paid for this wedding? It's, you know, I mean, the the basic fact we have is that a member of Putin's circle is financially supporting the president's son. As soon as we get to why, I mean, we start to have all these really weird questions come up. Jr. is rich. It seems like he could have afforded this himself. That doesn't mean he has 300 million dollars in his checking account, of course, but still. This is, this is objectively, it's just it's very strange. And you know, the other big question that we don't know is what's Kremlin's motive here? He spent a lot of money seemingly successfully cultivating relationship with the son of the president. And we have no idea why. And now the other son, one of the other sons, Trump Jr.'s brother Eric, when you asked put in a request for Eric's response

22:02who is at the wedding, he said this about Kremlin, quote, Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is nor has never heard his name. We're talking about a wedding party that went over days and there were only 50 people there all together. It's like he didn't get his brother's memo because his brother and his brother's new wife, they have admitted. Yeah, I mean, and this was, I mean, this was a very small wedding. I mean, Don has repeatedly said that it was just family and some quote really close friends. I mean, frankly, there was some long time friends of his that were understandably disappointed that they didn't make the cut. And then you have Umar, this big guy, shaved head, who not only met Don Jr. very recently, but also only speaks limited English. And this large crew of Russians he came with. I mean, it was apparently we talked to people there and it was quite the scene. It was intimate setting, Palm Beach, socialites, Jared Kushner, and then this

23:08large group that no one knew who sometimes stood off by themselves speaking Russian. What do we know about possible future cooperation between Don Jr. and Umar Kremlin? Not much. I mean, there is a press release that so the only instance that we actually know about besides what they taught just the kind of vague story in their statements of them having a relationship before this was last year. In September, this boxing organization, the Kremlin of Runs, hosted a panel discussion in Istanbul about boxing. And the panelists were Manipakyao, Muhammad Ali's daughter, and then Donald Trump Jr. And people who went, we're a little confused of why is Don Jr. here talking about sports with legends of the boxing world. After that event, Umar's organization had a press release where they said, this alliance will not remain symbolic, more joint initiatives will follow. What does that mean? We don't know, we asked both Kremlin

24:13and Don Jr. and other of them said. So you've done several pieces on this now. The House Oversight Committee, um, Congress member Garcia is calling for a federal investigation. What would this look like as, um, as you have the House Speaker, Johnson desperately trying to recess Congress until after the elections? I mean, I think, um, realistically, this House investigation means nothing right now except there was a document preservation request in these letters. So Don Jr. is under legal notice to keep all of his records related to this relationship. Um, if the Democrats retake the House in, um, in the fall, we could be talking about something very different next year. If Congress continues to be interested in looking into this. Joshua Catherine, when thank you for being with us, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for pro publica will link to your pieces. Um, the latest Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding was secretly bankrolled by Russian oligarch close to Putin. Coming up the elimination project, the Israeli

25:18human rights group at Selam, has accused Israel of dramatically escalating its assault on all aspects of Palestinian life in the occupied West Bank. Stay with us.

26:42Greed by the Palestinian mood musician Huda Asfor performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now Democracy Now.org the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Angelay Comet. A major new report by the Israeli human rights group at Selam titled the Elimination Project, accuses Israel of systematically dismantling the conditions that allow Palestinians and the occupied West Bank to function as a community. The report says Israel is, quote, dramatically intensifying its attacks on every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank, including quote, the ability to get to work, take children to school or university, receive medical treatment or municipal services, meet family and friends, cultivate land or go on vacation, routine activities that make up human life. This is Beth Selam executive director Yuley Novak in a video that accompanied the report. Israel is dismantling the basic conditions needed for collective Palestinian existence in the West Bank. Our new report, The Elimination Project,

27:44shows how this mechanism works and how over the past three years it has become more lethal, violent and explicit. Come with us to the West Bank to see for yourself. The Elimination Project in the West Bank operates through five domains of action that work together and reinforce each other. Killing, violence, intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover, these are all parts of a system with one aim to ensure Jewish supremacy and eliminate the Palestinian collective. That's part of a video accompanying the new Beth Selam report, The Elimination Project Israel's systematic dismantling of Palestinian collective life in the West Bank. Leading celebrities have joined Beth Selam and calling for the international community intervene on behalf of Palestinians. This video features Cynthia Nixon, Susan Sarandon,

28:45Michael Steip and the Emmy Award-winning Hannah Einbinder speaking alongside Beth Selam researchers. Israel is carrying out a campaign to eliminate Palestinian collective existence in the West Bank. It is happening right now. Another violent attack. Another killing. Another home demolished. Another home set on fire. Another community displaced from its land. Another checkpoint blocking the way. Another olive glue destroyed. What is happening in the West Bank is not a series of isolated events. When you pay attention and connect the dots, the picture is clear. They are all part of a single political project. US taxpayer dollars are funding these crimes. This project is rooted in an appetite system that has been blazed for generations. Since October 2023, it has accelerated dramatically. Its implementation is more violent and more unrestrained. The international community must end the impunity that allows it to continue. The world must act to stop Israel's elimination project in the West Bank.

29:49Since October 7, 2023, at least 1107 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank. Over the weekend, an Israeli soldier shot a Palestinian man in the leg during a confrontation between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank town of Fakua. Well, for more, we're joined by two guests. In Tel Aviv, Ori Gavati is with us, but Selam director of international relations. He's a former Israeli soldier who served as a tank commander primarily in the West Bank from 2010 to 2013. And in the occupied West Bank, we're joined by Mohammad Shabbat, a Palestinian farmer from Hal Hul, just north of Hebron. We'll open with both to democracy now. Ori, let's begin with you on the breadth of this report. Talk about what you're calling the elimination project and what's happening right now in the West Bank. Thank you for having me. For too long, Israel's policies in the West Bank have been

30:53kind of treated or looked at as isolated events, right? So the violence of settler militias, the home demolitions, military raids and so forth. When we look at Israel's policies in the West Bank together and truly examine them, we actually find that there is one very coherent logic behind all of them, and this is the logic of elimination of Palestinian collective life in the West Bank. This logic operates through five mechanisms that were identified, violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover, economic strangulation and social and political destruction through all of these mechanisms that work together simultaneously. And also reinforce one another. Israel is systematically dismantling the ability of Palestinians to live as a collective in that land. As you mentioned in your introduction,

31:56it creates a situation that Palestinians and life are just almost inviable. Starts from your home, your way to work, your way to school, your ability to visit your family, your ability to raise your olive grove and so forth. Simultaneously to all of that, Israel is also entrenching its own territory, takeover of that land and also moving its own people and expanding the settlements, the outposts, the farms and so forth to take over the space that Palestinian lives are becoming more and more inviable in. But, Ori, this project of settler colonialism, dispossession, settlement, it's not new. Talk about how in the report you connect what's happening in the West Bank to the ongoing genocide and Gaza and what has happened in the West Bank this escalation since 2023. Yeah, so in the report we focus on, we talk about the decades, but we also definitely mentioned

33:00talk about how since October 23, since the elections of the government in 2022, this scale, the speed, the openness of all those different elements significantly intensified. The logic of elimination comes in practice in its most extreme form in the genocide in Gaza and it's taken place across the territories that Israel controls. We're definitely seeing a lot of the mechanisms, the tools that were used and are used still. The genocide is ongoing as we speak. In Gaza, being implemented in the West Bank practices like aerial bombardments, for example, that we haven't seen in the West Bank for many, many years are back in practice. We're talking about it, when we talk about in Gaza, over 20,000 miners, kids, teenagers were killed by Israel as part of

34:03its genocide in the West Bank. We're also seeing vast killing of miners. It's in a different scale, but the practices are very, very similar and the geological elimination is all encompassing across the territories. Laurie, can you talk about how this, what you describe as the elimination project, how it relates to Bizalus Motrix plan, the decisive plan. I want to go back to the video that came out with the new report, Elimination Project, Israel's systematic dismantling of Palestinian collective life in the West Bank. This is a clip of Israel's far right finance minister, Bizalus Motrix, addressing the Kineset back in 2017. The basis for anyone who wants to stay is to abandon all national aspirations or the desire to express them here. There is no place here for national self-definition of anyone but the Jewish people. Laurie, your response, and if you can explain Smootrix kind of plan and how that relates to what's

35:03happening today. Yeah, so in 2017, Bizalus Motrix publishes his decisive plan. The plan basically talks about victory through settlement. It's one of the main concepts there. Then it talks about how Palestinians and the Israel's control have basically three options left according to Smootrix. Either to submit to Jewish supremacy and apartheid, leave or face the military consequences of the decision to resist. And when we look at Israel's elimination project in the West Bank, we're seeing many of this kind of blueprint that Smootrix publishes in 2017 implemented on the ground. Look, when Smootrix publishes this in 2017, he wasn't. It didn't have as much power as he has now. Today we're talking about a person who is a minister in Israel, a ministry of defense,

36:08which holds significant power over the West Bank. He was appointed to that position very knowingly by the prime minister Netanyahu. So the person that designed this blueprint, this plan, now holds the power to implement many of its elements. By the way, very outspoken about it, as we speak, these days, about his plan and about how he's intending to implement it. Now, when we look at what's happening on the ground in the West Bank, we're seeing exactly that. We're seeing violence by the military and violence by a settler militia that are also supported by the entire Israeli apparatus and the military, causing the displacement of thousands of Palestinians in communities across the West Bank over 66 communities were displaced since October 23 through the violence of settler militias that is supported by the state. Another 33,000 Palestinians were forced to be displaced through the violence of the military in Palestinian refugee camps

37:12since the beginning of 2025. And this is just one example of how his blueprint is actually taken place on the ground. I want to bring Mohammad Chaban into the conversation, a Palestinian farmer, we're speaking to in Halul, Halul in the Hebron area of the occupied West Bank. Can you talk about your life there, your family, your community, how you've been affected overall by the Israeli occupation, but by these gangs of Israeli settlers? If you can explain what's happened in Halul. Good afternoon or good morning, maybe in your area. I would like to thank you to having me in this meeting or this broadcast. I am from Halul, Halul is a city north to Hebron. In Halul, we are our main business or our main work is farmers. We are planting

38:18grapes. We're producing two main products. We'll see the grapes leaves and the grapes fruit. Before October 7, we don't have any certain maintain Halul. Halul located in Route 60. This Route 60 joining like Bir Shevat to Jerusalem, it's a crossing in Halul. Our land is separated, they have a foot before Route 60, the other half is after Route 60. Halul area is 37 dunams, actually majority of this land, 4000 dunams only the city, the other is agriculture land. So, we are in A-curve for our viewers who might not understand dunams. But, Mohammed, can you talk about, as you're talking about your life in Halul and your

39:18your occupation as a farmer, what has been the impact of settlers on your life, especially in recent months? Actually, in 2005, they started the first settlement in Halul. Now, we have seven outposts. We lost 14,000 dunams from our land, which is the richest land in agriculture, the best land for us. And this season, we lost 40 million shakens. In Halul also, they installed 11 gates. Around Halul, we cannot reach our lands, we cannot go outside Halul. They have only one gate from 8 o'clock until 5 o'clock every day. Everyone in Halul starts suffering because in that the beginning I said, we are fully dependent in agriculture, especially after October 7, we used to have some people working in Israel and they don't have bear missions to go now.

40:21So, everybody come back to his land to work in his land because it makes some money for the people to continue their life. So, with this big loss, actually, as I told you, around 40 million shakens, around 70% from our product every year. We thought that the report also talks about the economic strangulation of Palestinian communities. But, Mohammed, can you talk about what kinds of interactions you've personally had with the settlers and with soldiers and your children as well? Yes. The farmers didn't stop going to their land. When they go to the land, at the beginning, the settlers, if they are like a few people, the settlers attack them, beat them. We have documented 60 cases when they attack farmers. It's between like, yeah, in the seriously injured or

41:23injured in a simple way, damaging our cars, also damaging our fields, approaching our trees, many, many lands. We cannot now reach it at all. We didn't work on it. The other lands, which we managed to reach it, now the season starts, when the season starts last month, now is the season for the grapes. Actually, this lands, collecting the product, all the damage the product. Our loss, it's affected everything in Halhul. Imagine what makes Halhul special case because this thing has been only in six months. We have all of this loss having in six months. Nobody even think about it. I wanted to ask Uri Gavati of Betsellum, what you're calling for at this point.

42:24The British foreign secretary at Milliband has announced new policies against illegal Israeli settlements, including a ban on imports, targeted sanctions, a prohibition on advertising stolen land and more. The new sanctions announcing conjunction with Canada and France. But is this enough? Look, the steps from last week are definitely a good step in the right direction. Right, we're seeing for the first time a move from empty statements and condemnations, which is what we're used to see from the international community, to something that looks like real true consequences. What must happen is that these consequences will not only focus on the settlement project. Right, this is exactly what we're talking about in the report. The settlement project is not separate from the elimination project, it's actually a significant mechanism within the elimination

43:26project. In order to truly challenge this system, to truly stop Israel and make sure that consequences are truly kind of Israel truly has consequences for its crimes against the Palestinian people. Across the territories under its control, we need to see measures that target the system. And this is the move that needs to happen by the international community. This move from empty statement condemnations into measures that target the system itself. What does that look like, Uri? How do you target the system? I mean, this has been going on for years and you say has escalated rapidly in recent years. What exactly are you calling for? What needs to happen? Look, you know, the international community has such a vast array of tools under its disposal. Different policy makers and decision makers know exactly the type of tools they can use at this point.

44:27The problem is not what to do. The problem is that there isn't true political will to do something. We are seeing this beginning of change, right? We're seeing it in the UK, we're seeing it in other places in Europe. But we need more of that change. What to do is truly not a problem. The problem right now is that it's not nothing has been done. And this is what we're calling for to go through this transformation and truly face this Israeli system for what it is. A system that committing a genocide in Gaza, the elimination project in the West Bank is managing torture camps in its detention centers across its detention centers for Palestinians and truly treated as such. The measures are known for everybody. The political will is missing. And finally, we're speaking to you from the United States. And in our headlines today, we reported the Trump administration proved a 2.8 billion dollar package selling 2,000 pound bombs

45:29in Israel. The sale, including 40,000 bombs funded by foreign ministry financing, a program in which the US gives Israel taxpayer money that Israel spends to get US made bombs. Your final comment on the significance of the US support for Israel. There is no question that the US is the primary enabler of the genocide in Gaza, of the elimination project in the West Bank and basically of everything that Israel is doing. We are seeing amazing progress within the US society. You know, you mentioned that in your introduction, the moving steps by artists to publicly resist the genocide. This is an amazing process we're seeing within the US society. What must happen now is the translation of this process into actual actions by decision makers in order to again stop the Israeli genocide and stop

46:32the elimination project in the West Bank. Origavati, and thank you for being with us. Pet Selam, director of international relations. We'll link to your new report, the elimination project. Speaking to us from Telafiq and Mohammad Shaban, Palestinian farmer, speaking to us from Ha'uuh, just north of Hebron. Coming up as Amnesty International reiterates its call for a cease fire in the US-erun war. Amnesty has accused Iranian authorities of committing crimes against humanity during the bloody suppression of the 2022 women life freedom uprising. Stay with us.

47:48Amnesty International reiterates its call for a cease fire in the West Bank. Amnesty International reiterates its call for a cease fire in the West Bank. Amnesty International reiterates its call for a cease fire in the West Bank. And that left Moothi performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Angelic Comet. Four years ago today, the woman life freedom uprising erupted in Iran after the death and custody of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman named Gina Masa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police. For the next three months, hundreds of thousands took to the streets protesting against Iran's discriminatory compulsory vailing laws. In a new report, Amnesty International has concluded that the repressive measures used by Iranian authorities to crush the woman

48:51life freedom protests in 2022 constitute crimes against humanity. Investigating the killings of 377 protesters and bystanders in 2022, Amnesty International's Thousand Plus Page New Report calls for international criminal investigations into 80-70 Iranian officials. Amnesty interviewed 270 people for its investigation, most of whom participated in the protests. This is the testimony of Niaz Ak, who was 14 at the time of the protests and living in Iran's Kurdistan province. On October 8th, 2022, I was at school. When the last Bahrain we went outside school. The protests started. One of the plainclothes agents came with a chopped-on and tear gas. They fired tear gas and we all ran away. Agents fired metal pellets at two girls and they fell to the ground. All we could do was run. We fell to the ground and agent pulled our hair.

49:51He was pulling us into a car to take us away. But somehow we managed to escape from him. When I got home, I saw that he had pulled my hair so hard that all of it was stuck inside my headscarf. After that day, I didn't feel normal and didn't go to school anymore. We couldn't stay in Iran anymore. Since then, we haven't seen our home nor our family. No one knows. We changed gas. Niaz Ak, again, 14 at the time of the 2022 protests. Amnesty International released its new report at a time when the organization is also calling for an enduring ceasefire and accountability for the ongoing illegal U.S.-Israeli bombing of Iran that's killed nearly 1,500 civilians. For more, we're joined by Rahab Ahrini. Amnesty International's Iran researcher, their new report out today is titled Architects of Atrocities. State machinery orchestrating

50:57crimes against humanity in Iran's 2022 woman life freedom uprising, joining us from London. Rahab, if you can lay out the findings of this massive thousand plus page report and then also releasing it at this time when Amnesty has come out against the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Hello, Amy. Thank you very much for having me. Amnesty International is launching this landmark report to send a central message to the international community. Repeated protest killings in Iran have become normalized. Impunity is leading to the loss of thousands of lives and it is beyond time for the international community to end the crisis of impunity that is fueling repeated cycles of protest killings in Iran. Our research included interviews with 270 people, extensive analysis of documentary evidence and analysis of over 2,000 videos. The evidence leaves no doubt. The Iranian

52:03authorities committed crimes against humanity, the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, rape and sexual violence, enforce disappearance, and imprisonment and persecution on political, gender, ethnic and religious grounds to crush the woman life freedom uprising. And impunity for these crimes paved the way for further atrocities at even a more horrific level in January 2026. We are urging the international community to pursue justice because domestically there is no prospect for justice. We've explained in immense detail how the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran is complicit in crimes against humanity. So the international community is kind of disconnected from reality by directing cost accountability for the very authorities that are part of the security apparatus committing crimes in the country. We've named 87 officials who must face

53:05criminal investigations but this is not an exhaustive list. It however shows how crimes against humanity are planned, coordinated and waged across the country terrorizing entire communities to crush this end. And as you noted, we are launching this report because we think that it's important that the crimes against humanity committed against protesters demanding dignity, freedom and human rights are not overshadowed by the current new round of crisis that has also opened a new front of crimes under international law against people in Iran this time due to the unlawful strikes of the US and Israel which violate the UN charter. We've been very clear that the suffering of victims of crimes against humanity must not be instrumentalized or weaponized by actors such as US and Israel and at the same time we are clear that we need people centered

54:06strategies and crimes against humanity must also not be forgotten or overshadowed because of the current crisis because people in Iran are at risk of further massacres if global action on justice is not taken. And Rahul, you identify 87 officials within different levels of the Iranian government. How high does the responsibility go and can you just say a little bit about how Iranian authorities justified the crackdown when it happened in 2022 and what their response has been to your report you just released it this morning. The responsibility goes all the way to the top of the chain of command. The 87 officials we've named include the Supreme Leader, the late Supreme Leader who is the commander of the Security Forces. It includes the head of the general staff of the armed forces and commanders of the Security Forces leading on deadly protest disperse also which are in the context of Iran the police force and Islamic Revolutionary Guard

55:09Corps. We've also named 27 25 Ministry of Interior officials they include the then Minister of Interior Ahmad Bahidi who is now the general commander of the IRGC as well as provincial governors and county governors. Crimes against humanity are system crimes this means that they require resources, organization, structures and state policy. And this is precisely what we have shown in the report. In over 260 pages we have mapped the chain of command behind these crimes and we've shown how Security Forces across the country, and vast network of Security Forces, are deployed, equipped with firearms, military-grade firearms such as assault rifles, sub-machine guns and heavy-machine guns to kill and injure protesters. There is a leak document that shows or sheds light on the inner workings of the deadly crackdown. It's a it's from a provincial police

56:11commander that instructed the Security Forces to respond mercilessly and go as far as causing that these crimes were intended to take place because the authorities rely on a state policy of lethal force to crush dissent in the country. Rahad, you know, as we're talking this is in the midst of the ongoing bombing of Iran conflict with US-Israel against Iran. This has been going on for over six months now. What has been the relationship between the crackdown on dissent? And the, you know, there was a people's uprising earlier this year that was brutally suppressed and this kind of war. This has been a devastating year for people in Iran. The unlawful attacks of the US and Israel started as people were still reeling from the collective grief and trauma of the unprecedented January massacres just to remind ourselves in January, 2026, in less than 48 hours on the 8th and 9th of January, Security Forces massacred thousands

57:19of protesters and bystanders across Iran to crush the largest nationwide uprising that the country had seen since 1979. After experiencing decades of repression at the hands of their own authorities, people in Iran are also now suffering violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes because of the tens of thousands of airstrikes by the US and Israeli authorities. So now they are caught between internal deadly repression and unlawful attacks by external activists. The Iranian authorities have also used the cover of wartime conditions to intensify domestic repression. They have further militarized public spaces. They are threatening almost on a routine basis, further massacres of protesters and dissidents. They are counting on the fact that the international community is now looking elsewhere. Other headlines are dominating the news.

58:22So they tell people that their hangars, their fingers are on trigger to launch further massacres. Rah, Rah, we want to thank you so much for being with us. Rah, Barraini, Human Rights lawyer, researcher on Iran, for Amnesty International will link to your new report, Architects of atrocities, State Machine Learning, or Christian Crime Against Humanity in Iran's 2022 Woman Life Freedom Uprising. Today on the fourth anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Masa Amini in custody of Iran's morality police. I made me good men with angely comment. Look forward to seeing people invading in New York tomorrow for the other story, please. Thanks so much.